According to Canadian Women & Sport’s Rally Report 2022<\/a>, 50% of girls are not participating in sport by the time they reach adolescence. The report also states that 13% of 13- to 18-year-old girls and 10% of six- to 12-year-old girls who were participating in sport before the pandemic did not return to it. That’s too many girls missing out on the life-changing benefits of an active lifestyle. This becomes even more important once they enter their 40s, 50s and 60s.<\/p>\n Just like boys and men, it’s recommended that girls aged five to 17 get at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity<\/a> (MVPA) per day<\/a>, and women aged 18 to 64 get at least 150 minutes of MVPA per week<\/a>. Unfortunately, our report<\/a> cards<\/a> show that only 52% of girls and 46% of women meet these recommendations, compared to 67% of boys and 52% of men.<\/p>\n According to Canadian Women & Sport’s Rally Report 2022<\/a>, the top sports participation barriers for adolescent girls included body image concerns, safety, lack of confidence and skill, quality of sport, and injury. Another report<\/a> also found that lack of information about opportunities, costs, the wrong types of programs and facilities, lack of skill and inconvenient hours for class times were the barriers to physical activity most reported by older women.<\/p>\n Barriers to sport participation<\/a> may differ based on important factors beyond age and gender. For example:<\/p>\n 1. Expose girls to positive role models <\/strong>– There’s a higher chance of girls playing sports if the people in their lives such as their parents or guardians also do. These role models could be professional or amateur athletes or women who have achieved success in related fields like nutrition and fitness.<\/p>\n 2. Show your support for female athletes <\/strong>– Watch or attend women’s sporting events with the women and girls in your life. This might even help inspire them to play sports or become more physically active themselves.<\/p>\n 3. Become informed <\/strong>– Make yourself aware of the many barriers that girls and women face, and their experiences as participants and leaders. One way you can do this is by attending a workshop run by Canadian Women & Sport <\/a>or downloading one of their resources.<\/p>\n 4. Be a vocal ally<\/strong>– Advocate for equitable access for every woman and girl to programs, effective coaching, leadership opportunities and facilities. Put into question practices and policies that put limits on the participation and leadership of women and girls.<\/p>\n 5. Share household chores, errands and childcare responsibilities <\/strong>– For many women and girls, lack of time is a major barrier to them getting active. So, if you live with women or girls, take on more household chores, run more errands or look after your children so that they have more time to get out and get active.<\/p>\n 6. Get active with the girls and women in your life<\/strong> – This is a great way for you to spend quality time and connect with them while keeping yourself and them accountable. For your next date night with your spouse or partner, make it active by doing a fitness class, taking a ballroom dance lesson together or simply going on a neighbourhood stroll or wheel. On your next family outing, go hiking, play a sport or cycle together.<\/p>\n 7. Help girls and women feel safer when they’re getting active<\/strong> – If you see a girl or woman getting active outdoors or at a gym, keep your distance, give her space and avoid making comments, even if you think they’re compliments, as this may intimidate them or make for an uncomfortable environment.<\/p>\n 8. Regularly encourage the girls and women in your life to get active <\/strong>– Remind the women and girls in your life of the many benefits of physical activity and cheer them on!<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whether it’s swimmer Penny Oleksiak, soccer player Kadeisha Buchanan or skier Marielle Thompson, women in Canada are dominating the world stage of sports and athletics and inspiring young women to lead active lifestyles. With March 8 being International Women’s Day, we wanted to highlight these amazing athletes. Despite the high-profile successes of female athletes in Canada, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":294943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"Whether it\u2019s swimmer Penny Oleksiak, soccer player Kadeisha Buchanan or skier Marielle Thompson, women in Canada are dominating the world stage of sports and athletics and inspiring young women to lead active lifestyles. With March 8 being\u00a0International Women\u2019s Day<\/a>, we wanted to highlight these amazing athletes. Despite the high-profile successes of female athletes in Canada, unique barriers are preventing some girls and women from participating.\r\n\r\nAccording to Canadian Women & Sport\u2019s Rally Report 2022<\/a>, 50% of girls are not participating in sport by the time they reach adolescence. The report also states that 13% of 13- to 18-year-old girls and 10% of six- to 12-year-old girls who were participating in sport before the pandemic did not return to it. That\u2019s too many girls missing out on the life-changing benefits of an active lifestyle. This becomes even more important once they enter their 40s, 50s and 60s.\r\n\r\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shutterstock_2153078875-300x205.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTop barriers to physical activity for girls and women<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shutterstock_1085921009-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
How to help girls and women overcome physical activity barriers <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shutterstock_1937975395-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shutterstock_395455555-300x186.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\r\n\r\nJust like boys and men, it\u2019s recommended that girls aged five to 17 get at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) per day<\/a>, and women aged 18 to 64 get at least\u00a0150 minutes of MVPA per week<\/a>. Unfortunately, our report<\/a> cards<\/a> show that only 52% of girls and 46% of women meet these recommendations, compared to 67% of boys and 52% of men.\r\nTop barriers to physical activity for girls and women<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nAccording to Canadian Women & Sport\u2019s Rally Report 2022<\/a>, the top sports participation barriers for adolescent girls included body image concerns, safety, lack of confidence and skill, quality of sport, and injury. Another report<\/a> also found that lack of information about opportunities, costs, the wrong types of programs and facilities, lack of skill and inconvenient hours for class times were the barriers to physical activity most reported by older women.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nBarriers to sport participation<\/a> may differ based on important factors beyond age and gender. For example:\r\n\r\n \t
How to help girls and women overcome physical activity barriers <\/strong><\/h2>\r\n1. Expose girls to positive role models <\/strong>\u2013 There\u2019s a higher chance of girls playing sports if the people in their lives such as their parents or guardians also do. These role models could be professional or amateur athletes or women who have achieved success in related fields like nutrition and fitness.\r\n\r\n2. Show your support for female athletes <\/strong>\u2013 Watch or attend women\u2019s sporting events with the women and girls in your life. This might even help inspire them to play sports or become more physically active themselves.\r\n\r\n3. Become informed <\/strong>\u2013 Make yourself aware of the many barriers that girls and women face, and their experiences as participants and leaders. One way you can do this is by attending a workshop run by\u00a0Canadian Women & Sport <\/a>or downloading one of their resources.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n4. Be a vocal ally<\/strong>\u2013 Advocate for equitable access for every woman and girl to programs, effective coaching, leadership opportunities and facilities. Put into question practices and policies that put limits on the participation and leadership of women and girls.\r\n\r\n5. Share household chores, errands and childcare responsibilities <\/strong>\u2013 For many women and girls, lack of time is a major barrier to them getting active. So, if you live with women or girls, take on more household chores, run more errands or look after your children so that they have more time to get out and get active.\r\n\r\n6. Get active with the girls and women in your life<\/strong> \u2013 This is a great way for you to spend quality time and connect with them while keeping yourself and them accountable. For your next date night with your spouse or partner, make it active by doing a fitness class, taking a ballroom dance lesson together or simply going on a neighbourhood stroll or wheel. On your next family outing, go hiking, play a sport or cycle together.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n7. Help girls and women feel safer when they\u2019re getting active<\/strong> \u2013 If you see a girl or woman getting active outdoors or at a gym, keep your distance, give her space and avoid making comments, even if you think they\u2019re compliments, as this may intimidate them or make for an uncomfortable environment.\r\n\r\n8. Regularly encourage the girls and women in your life to get active <\/strong>\u2013 Remind the women and girls in your life of the many benefits of physical activity and cheer them on!","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[498,17,93,599],"tags":[488,578,65,151,107,130,476,124,152,118,205],"benefits":[],"class_list":["post-294942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens-health","category-family","category-science","category-sports","tag-adversity","tag-barriers","tag-body-image","tag-girls","tag-science-and-research","tag-sport","tag-teens","tag-tips-and-tricks","tag-women","tag-womens-health","tag-youth"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294942"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295562,"href":"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294942\/revisions\/295562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294942"},{"taxonomy":"benefits","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecsdev.participaction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/benefits?post=294942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}